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Awadhi language
Awadhi ( ; अवधी; ��������) is an Eastern Hindi language of the Indo-Aryan branch spoken in northern India. It is primarily spoken in the Awadh region of present day Uttar Pradesh, India. The name Awadh is connected to Ayodhya, the ancient town, which is regarded as the homeland of Śrī Rāma. It was, along with Braj Bhasha, used widely as a literary vehicle before being ousted by Hindustani in the 19th century. From a linguistic point-of-view, Awadhi is a distinct language that has its own grammar. In sociopolitical contexts, however, Awadhi is viewed simply as a style or spoken variety of Hindi and is not used as a medium of instruction in any institution, though its literary heritage is included as a part of Hindi literature. Awadhi is generally viewed as a rural tongue yet people in urban areas tend to speak a mixed form of Awadhi with Standard Hindi. Alternative names of Awadhi include Baiswāri (after the region of Baiswara), as well as the sometimes ambiguous Pūrbī, literally meaning "eastern", and Kōsalī (named after Kosala). Geographic distribution In India Awadhi is predominantly spoken in the Awadh region encompassing central Uttar Pradesh along with lower portion of Ganga-Yamuna doab. On the west, it's bounded by Western Hindi, viz., Kannauji and Bundeli, while on its East there is the Bihari dialect Bhojpuri. On the north, it's bounded by country of Nepal while on it's south it's bounded by Bagheli which shares a great resemblance with Awadhi. The districts of Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur, Lucknow, Unnao and Fatehpur form the western portions of Awadhi speaking area. The central districts include Barabanki, Rae Bareli, Amethi and Baharich. The eastern parts include districts of Faizabad, Allahabad, Kaushambi, Gonda, Basti, Sultanpur, Ambedkar Nagar and Pratapgarh. It is also spoken in some parts of Mirzapur and Jaunpur districts. |alt=]] In Nepal It's spoken mainly in Bheri zone: Banke and Bardia districts; Lumbini zone: Kapilvastu, Nawalparasi, and Rupandehi districts; Mahakali zone: Kanchanpur district; Rapti zone: Dang district; Seti zone: Kailali district. Outside South Asia A language influenced by Awadhi (as well as other languages) is also spoken as a lingua franca for Indians in Fiji, referred as Fiji Hindi. According to Ethnologue, it is a type of Awadhi influenced by Bhojpuri and is also classified as Eastern-Hindi. Classification Awadhi is an Indo-European language and belongs to the Indo-Aryan sub-group of Indo-Iranian language family. Within the Indo-Aryan dialect continuum, it falls under East-Central zone of languages and often recognized as Eastern-Hindi. It’s generally believed that an older form of Ardhamagadhi, which agreed partly with Sauraseni and partly with Magadhi Prakrit, could be the basis of Awadhi. Awadhi has many features that separates it from the neighboring Western Hindi and Bihari vernaculars. In Awadhi, nouns are generally both short and long whereas Western Hindi has generally short while Bihari generally employs longer and long forms. The gender is rigorously maintained in Western Hindi, Awadhi is little loose yet largely preserved while Bihari is highly attenuated. In regards to postpositions, Awadhi is distinguished from Western Hindi by the absence of agentive postposition in the former agreeing with Bihari dialects. The accusative-dative postposition in Awadhi is /kaː/ or /kə/ while Western Hindi has /koː/ or /kɔː/ and Bihari has /keː/. The locative postposition in both Bihari and Western Hindi is /mẽː/ while Awadhi has /maː/. The pronouns in Awadhi have /toːɾ-/, /moːɾ-/ as personal genitives while /teːɾ-/, /meːɾ-/ in Western Hindi. The oblique of /ɦəmaːɾ/ is /ɦəmɾeː/ in Awadhi while /ɦəmaːɾeː/ in Western Hindi whereas /ɦəmrən'kæ/ in Bihari. Another defining characteristic of Awadhi is the affix /-ɪs/ as in /dɪɦɪs/, /maːɾɪs/ etc. The neighbouring Bhojpuri has the distinctive (i) /laː/ enclitic in present tense (ii) /-l/ in past tense (iii) dative postposition /-laː/ which separates it from Awadhi language. Literature Several important literary works were composed in the language, namely: * Chandayan by Mulla Da’ud. (1373-1375 A.D.) * Padmavat by Malik Muhammad Jayasi (1540 A.D.) * Chitravali by Usman (1613 A.D.) * Ramcharitmanas (popularly known as Ramayana) and Hanuman Chalisa by Tulsidas (1575 A.D.) * Indravati and Anurag Bansuri by Nur Muhammad (1757 A.D.) Popular culture The 1961 movie, Gunga Jumna had featured Awadhi being spoken by the characters in a neutralized form. In the 2001 Bollywood movie Lagaan, a neutralised form of Awadhi language was used to make it understandable to the masses. The 2009 Bollywood movie Dev.D featured an Awadhi song Paayaliya composed by Amit Trivedi. In the television series Yudh, Amitabh Bachchan spoke parts of his dialogue in Awadhi which received critical acclaim from Hindustan times. Sample phrases The Awadhi language comes with its own dialectal variations. For instance, in western regions the auxiliary /hʌiː/ is used while in central and eastern parts /ʌhʌiː/ is used. The following examples are taken from Baburam Saxena's Evolution of Awadhi, and alternative versions are also provided to exhibit dialectal variations. See also * Languages of India * Languages with official status in India * List of Indian languages by total speakers * Fijian Hindustani * Caribbean Hindustani References Bibliography * External links *Entry for Awadhi at SIL International Category:Dialects of Urdu Category:Languages of India Category:Languages of Fiji Category:Languages of Uttar Pradesh Category:Culture of Awadh